Conor McGregor can draw a crowd in his homeland. | Ciarán
Maher/Sherdog.com

Irish television executives’ eyes are smiling after seeing numbers
for the live domestic broadcast of Saturday’s
Ultimate Fighting Championship card in Dublin.

UFC Fight Night “McGregor vs. Brandao” marked the first time a
terrestrial network aired a UFC event in Ireland, and the numbers
surpassed expectations, setting new records for free-to-air channel
3e. According to a Monday release, the event was watched by 600,000
total viewers and peaked at 340,200, averaging out at 257,500
viewers for the broadcast as a whole.

While those numbers may seem small by American standards, they have
to be placed into context. The U.S. has a population of 313.9
million; Ireland has a population of 4.5 million. The broadcast
gained 21 percent of the nation’s television viewers that night. In
the demographics for Men 15-34 and Adults 15-24, the broadcast
scored 36.9 percent and 43.3 percent, respectively.

“Saturday night’s fantastic UFC ratings prove that there is a real
hunger for MMA in Ireland, in particular Ireland’s own star
attraction and showman Conor
McGregor,” stated Jeff Ford, TV3 Group director of content. “3e
was the first broadcaster to take the plunge and broadcast UFC live
and free to air and the feedback from our viewers has been
great.”

Garry Cook, head of the UFC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
division, said: “This was a night that will go down in history
within the UFC for the record sell out and viewership figures...
The collaboration between UFC and TV3, not just on the night, but
in the weeks and days leading to the event has shown how an
integrated partnership can benefit both organizations.”